Standoff
by M.L. Shards
Summary: Third in Forgotten Series. He just ran. He didn't care where he ended up .Oneshot.


You know, these are turning out way more popular than expected...especially since Justin is one of the main characters, I never expected this. It's quite nice : )

Well I've tried to work more on my punctuation for this one, so hopefully it's a bit better. The style is slightly different, but it has to be in my opinion for the conversations to make sense.

For those new, you'll probably have to read _Sugar and Lemons _followed by _Mix _before you can really understand this. I think I need a series name so I can be "Thrid in the (insert name here) series"...if you have any suggestions please mention them in reviews.

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He ran.

He ran as fast as his legs could muster, passed the three nosey students (including the one in the red shirt), passed a few bewildered students who were wondering about the black blur that had just gone by and passed a confused Randal who was patrolling the hallways like a night watchman.

Confused looks followed him as he leaped over a jock (whose name escaped him) that was tying his shoes in front of the entrance and slammed into the glass doors of Reefside High, shoving them open, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as he did.

God, how could he have been so stupid? Tommy wasn't the brightest of people, but he wasn't a complete idiot.

He had known the entire time. He'd known but had been too ashamed to even acknowledge him, to acknowledge their passed, to acknowledge that they hadn't spoken to each other in years…

He ran passed his car and onto the soccer field that was slightly damp from rain a few days earlier and didn't even need to pay attention to the slippery surface. He'd retained his balance after all these years, it was a painful reminder that he was still one of them, but he'd managed to remind himself it could be useful. After all the device around his wrist was the worst…

He ran through the game and jumped over the ball and weaved between players till he was off of it.

He just ran.

He didn't care where he ended up.

Back at the school the teacher looked down as his students entered the room. He gathered his coat from his chair and put it on quickly trying to ignore the looks his students were giving him.

The younger man was so different, so angry, scared, confused, but trying to put on a brave front…and he smelled like smoke. Something that made him worry even more.

He wasn't letting his brain deteriorate, but he didn't appear to be caring as much about his health as he should be. He hoped that's where it stopped. He himself might have been a goody two shoes in high school, but he wasn't unaware of the temptations that were all around.

That led him to another question.

Why the hell was Justin still in high school?

"Dr. O what was that about?"

He didn't reply right away. What could he say? Somehow "oh, he's a friend of mine from high school" would sound too weird and take too long to explain with the time frame he had.

"I have to go," is what ended up escaping his lips, "I'll see you at Hayley's later okay?"

"Does Justin really have the best grades in the class?" the darker skinned student ended up blurting out unintentionally.

He ignored it and pushed passed them, leaving three very stunned students in his wake. It didn't matter though; he needed to catch him.

Justin was fast; he just hoped he was faster.

He jogged through the main hallway of the school and out the front door, listening to the confused mumblings of the students as they discussed what had just happened. It appeared his "friend" had developed a short-fused temper with puberty, or maybe this went deeper than he thought, maybe it wasn't just him.

Maybe none of the rangers had spoken to their youngest teammate in all this time.

The poor kid…

He stuck his hand in his jacket pocket and was well aware of the jingling sound that emitted as he searched for the keys to his jeep.

Jeep…

Oh there was no way Justin was going to talk to him if he was in a jeep…

"Screw it," he muttered as he ran in the direction of puzzled looks and dazed soccer players.

God, how could he have been so stupid? That kid needed him. He'd been his mentor for crying out loud! He had promised to protect him and help him. The others had too. In a strange way it was like he and Kat had had a child together.

They were the parental figures and they had abandoned him...

Well he was determined now.

He was going to fix this.

He was going to make sure that he didn't mess this up anymore.

He just hoped it wasn't too late.

He ran passed the soccer field silently praying that Justin would stop somewhere. He was in good…no, great shape, but so was Justin and he was younger…but judging by the smell, he probably smoked, so he'd have to stop.

The soccer players had just about started their game back up when he ran through it, nearly knocking over Coach Forrester (a balding man in a gray tracksuit) in the process. He hollered back a rushed "sorry," before continuing on. The coach called back something about him "stealing his best player" that Tommy really paid no attention to.

Hey, if he'd rather have a good soccer team than a safe city, that was his loss.

From the field of Reefside High, it opened up into a section of trees, like a miniature forest. He nearly lost the trail, but it appeared the younger man's backpack had gotten snagged on something and things were falling out of it, pencils, papers, a keychain (strangely with no keys on it) that resembled a disco ball and the black book he'd been reading in class marked a trail to a sidewalk in the park where he caught a glimpse of the younger man as he rounded a corner to be hidden by more trees.

He inhaled deeply and sped up his pace. The younger man was slowing down, his lungs probably on fire depending on the length of time since he started smoking. He hoped it was a while ago, just so he could catch up with him. He doubted he's be able to if he didn't have that advantage.

The next few minutes were agonizing as he kept seeing glimpses of the younger man who seem oblivious to the world around him and where he was going. He was running towards a nearby river and Tommy was pretty sure that Justin wasn't even aware he was being followed.

He felt awful.

The younger man just wanted to get as far away from him as possible and didn't appear to be in need to slowing down.

Then it hit him that if Justin had been smoking, he shouldn't be able to run as hard as he was doing without collapsing into a coughing fit.

The power was meant to protect the rangers at all points in their lives, morphed or not. Smoke inhalation was one of the things they needed to be protected against, sure they still coughed, but they couldn't get any major damage done to them, the recovered supernaturally fast from things far more strange than smoke inhalation. Even when Rocky had injured his back, his recovery had been triple what it would have normally taken, but if Justin didn't go into space…

He still had his Turbo powers…

He wasn't going to catch him… even with some of his old powers still active, TJ had his Turbo powers.

Turbo was all about speed.

"Justin! Please! Stop!"

He honestly hadn't believed that that was going to work, but it did.

The younger man spun around to face him, "Leave me alone!" he retaliated.

Tommy slowed to a stop before he smashed into the younger man. Both of them were breathing heavily, pink in the cheeks, but quite capable to continuing on if they had to. He just hoped the younger man didn't bolt.

"Justin, what's wrong?"

And finally it happened.

He snapped.

Justin Stewart just snapped.

Thank god it was in an empty park…

"What's wrong!? You want to know what's wrong?!" he shrieked his voice going up three octaves higher than he thought possible, "I had everyone who was ever my friend leave me and never contact me ever, even though I saved their asses multiple times! I have been trying to escape everything you stand for since the space rangers did their whole "I am Spartacus" thing and when I finally get away from the town that harbours all of those things I end up smack-dab in your science class! Yes **Doctor** Oliver, the idiot who could never be on time for everything and used to ask me for help with his homework! To top off my inability to get rid of that part of my life I can't take this damn thing off of my wrist or I have a sentient jeep following me around for days until I put it back on! I can't take my drive key off my keychain or the same thing happens! Because apparently I can't have a normal life!" he held up his wrist and rolled up his sleeve to show what he was talking about. "But I was starting to get over that part with therapy!"

There on Justin's wrist, in the "camouflage" mode it had, was his turbo morpher. It hadn't donned on Tommy that long sleeves and jackets were the younger man's wardrobe choice from day to day, most likely to hide it.

The older man looked down sadly, "Justin-"

"No one returned my phone calls or emails, I've even tried getting a hold of Andros! Andros! I knew him for like an hour and even he gave me a bit of a response, explaining something about all the red rangers getting together and that he was a bit too busy to talk to the others at that moment." the younger man continued ranting in a hysterical voice, "I have no friends and I had my dad get married to a woman who thinks I'm a freak and is making me repeat grade twelve when I already have a university degree! Know how high school is hell? Try going through it twice, once when you're twelve! And to top it all off there's godforsaken Power Rangers in this town and I am willing to bet they are the mismatched trio that were standing outside your doorway earlier… Shall I continue or do you get the gist of it?"

Awkward silence followed.

The older man studied the man in front of him carefully.

He was shaking, on the verge of tears, and he was pretty sure that he had been bottling all that up for a very long time.

"Why won't it leave me alone?" he sniffed wiping his eyes, "why won't you leave me alone? I was just getting over all of this…I was going to have a new start…"

Tommy smiled sadly realizing he couldn't force this, if he did, he'd lose him more than he already had "Look Justin, I'm meeting the rangers at Hayley's Cyberspace, if you want to catch up, I'll be there all evening. They serve smoothies…" he added on a slightly lighter note.

He got no reaction.

"Just please stop smoking," he sighed "and just think about something for me. Maybe you aren't supposed to forget."

He turned and left, walking back towards the school, hoping the younger man would come, but if he'd stayed only a few seconds longer, he might have heard the bitter reply from his student that was carried off by the wind.

"Says the one who forgot about me."

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